We Are Free | Galatians 5_1-6

Sermon on Christian freedom by Jonathan Shradar

Galatians 5:1–6 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.[2] Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. [3] I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. [4] You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. [5] For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. [6] For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” (ESV)

In Christ we are free from the penalty, presence, and power of sin.

Having visited Alcatraz this summer and seeing a picture of one of its notorious residents, Al Capone, a childhood memory came to mind, that resurfaced this week as I was studying Christian freedom.

Geraldo Rivera, known for scandalous reporting, had promised to uncover incriminating evidence once and for all against Capone by excavating hidden, walled-off subterranean chambers of a hotel in Chicago Capone once owned.

“The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults" which was broadcast live on April 21, 1986. The two-hour special (including commercials) was greatly hyped as potentially revealing great riches or dead bodies on live television. This included the presence of a medical examiner should bodies be found, and agents from the Internal Revenue Service to collect any of Capone's money that might be discovered.

When the vault was finally opened, the only things found inside were dirt and several empty bottles, including one Rivera claimed was for moonshine bathtub gin. After several attempts to dig further into the vault, Rivera admitted defeat and voiced his disappointment to the viewers, apologizing as he thanked the excavation team for their efforts. Although it gathered criticism and became infamous for its disappointing ending, the program was the most-watched syndicated television special that year with an estimated audience of 30 million.[3] After the show, Rivera was quoted as saying "Seems like we struck out".

A dud! No evidence, nothing to see. I think this came to mind as I thought of the Christian’s standing before the judgment seat of God. There may be much fanfare, the slick accuser could be hyping up the forthcoming revelation of evidence that would keep them from life with God, eternity with Him. And as the vault is opened, in Christ, there is nothing there to condemn.

In the lack of damning evidence, there is freedom, this freedom is our identity in Christ, our sweet savor, our dynamite for blasting through life.

We’ve finished studying Jesus’ “I am” statements. Declarations of who He is - brilliant, faith-building stuff. And in light of those truths, we want to spend the next four weeks thinking about who we are, in Christ, the I am.

It won’t be exhaustive, but should be foundational, anchoring realities of Christian identity and life.

We begin with free.

Now, the freedom we mean is not a patriotic one, however timely that would be. This is a liberty (eleutheria), personal freedom from servitude, confinement or oppression… of a spiritual nature.

Truth is, most of humanity, our existence, what we see around us, what people chase after, what is collectively seen as worthwhile or true; is or represents life under captivity…

You were joyfully designed, created, meant to live in this very moment.

Acts 17:24–27 “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. [26] And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, [27] that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,” (ESV)

And since he is holy, unique and perfect, to be with him we too must be holy, so perfect obedience to his way is required.

But something gets in the way of this…

From our first parents in the garden choosing their own way, disobedience, disregard for God, sin enters the human experience.

Sin: “an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law,” rebellion against God.

Jesus, when he said he was the light of the world, said this of sin:

John 8:31–36 “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, [32] and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [33] They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

[34] Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. [35] The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. [36] So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (ESV)

The word he uses for sin; an act or feeling that transgresses something forbidden or ignores something required by God’s law or character; whether in thought, feeling, speech, or action.

Instigators are our own hearts/flesh, the world (systems that lure us away from God), and the devil (the accuser). All of which end in death…

Penalty for sin is death. But, Jesus comes as a sacrificial lamb, the shepherd who lays down his life for his own. Living that perfectly obedient life. He who is lifted up on a cross, taking on the wages of sin for us.

All who believe, all who trust in him for salvation are free. Freedom not only from the past, or for the future, but to be experienced now.

In Christ we are free from the penalty, presence, and power of sin.

How does this truth move me out of my sin/idolatry; shouldn’t freedom = perfection?

Freed from penalty, presence, and power.

Jesus frees us from sin’s penalty

Galatians 5:1a “For freedom Christ has set us free;” (ESV)

Using Galatians 5 not only because it has the word “freedom” in it, but because it matches our experience.

Galatians - gentile believers, meaning pagan religiously, secular. No background of Judaism, no understanding of Yahweh and his relationship with Israel.

But keenly aware of how broken their own lives were and how by the Spirit, Jesus was freeing them from the bondage the worship of idols had them in, the hopelessness of life apart from God.

“If you were a pagan, what did the pagans do? It depended. If you were a fisherman, you worshiped the fisher god. If you were out for a spouse, you worshiped the beauty god. If you were a soldier, you worshiped the military god. Of course, everybody had their own god, and everybody was living for something else.

That’s a life of slavery. Why? Because if you live for anything finite, if your bottom line, if your meaning in life is anything finite, whether it’s military success or whether it’s beauty or whether it’s sexual attraction or whether it’s your family or whether it’s your job or whatever, if you’re living for anything finite, you are absolutely burdened and always enslaved. Why? Because circumstances will kill you.”

Galatians 1:3–4 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, [4] who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, (ESV)

This is the anchor, and what Paul wants them to cling to, “stand firm therefore.” If you have believed in Jesus, you have been freed from sin’s penalty, from separation from God, from wrath.

Galatians 3:13–14 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—[14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (ESV)

“When we came to saving faith in Christ, confessing our great need of him and asking for forgiveness from the punishment we deserved, we were met with God’s unequivocal “yes.” Since Christ bore the penalty for our sins, we received freedom from that penalty for all sins past, present, and future. We were justified before God our judge because our penalty had been paid. Those who have been justified never need re-justifying. We can look back to the time of our justification and know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1–2).” Jen Wilkin

What a burden lifted. Once you Have that Acts 17 awareness of God, that there is more than merely “the universe.” That a Creator is orchestrating all of this. And he cares for you, knows you, longs to delight in you. You want to know him, and the gap between is bridged by Jesus. Once for all. Always in, secure.

Free from the penalty of sin. Gives us an eye for eternity.

Jesus will free us from sin’s presence

I am taking these points out of logical order, to spend more time on point 3.

But the destination of our existence is meant to be a motivator, a hope for us now. In our freedom we are headed to a day when sin will not exist in or near us.

Galatians 5:5 “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” (ESV)

Hope of righteousness. This is not hoping to maybe get righteousness. But what righteousness produces. Life with Christ for eternity.

Hope is an insufficient word here too. Hope in English is unsure. When I say “I hope” for something, I mean it “might” happen. But what Paul is writing here (elpis) is clear expectation, it is sure, confident. That is why “we ourselves eagerly wait…”

“Their hope is not vague or uncertain; it is fostered and kept alive by the indwelling Spirit of God. The theme of the Spirit’s ministry in giving actuality here and now to the heritage of glory which awaits the believer in the resurrection.” F. F. Bruce

Revelation 21:3–4 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. [4] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (ESV)

All of the things sin produces will be absent. Sin will be gone.

“We will fight to grow in holiness our entire earthly lives. But when we have run the race and fought the good fight, we will enter into the presence of the Lord forever. We will be glorified. In his presence, our soul rest will at last be complete, as sin and its devastation will cease to assail us. There can be no evil in his presence. Though now we are surrounded on all sides by sinfulness, though now sin continues to cling to our hearts, on a day not too distant we will go to a place where sin is no more. In our glorification we will at last be granted freedom from the very presence of sin.” Jen Wilkin

This hope strengthens our standing, we know we are on our way.

Jesus is freeing us from sin’s power

This is where we reside. We get justification (being saved). We have the expectation of glorification, some more eagerly than others!

But how freedom is maintained, lived out, expanded, experienced, owned in the depths of our hearts… how sanctification happens.

Anchored in newness of life.

Romans 6:3–11 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

[5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. [7] For one who has died has been set free from sin. [8] Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9] We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. [10] For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. [11] So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

Romans 6:14 “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (ESV)

No longer captive, not controlled, free to choose differently, to live for something better, to live the way of Jesus.

Sin is no longer our identity in Christ.

But also part of sin’s power is the need to prove ourselves, and that is what is in clear focus in our text.

Galatians, they were doing good. Believed the gospel, believed in Jesus. But then other voices came in, voices that seemed authoritative and added to the gospel. They said belief wasn’t enough, you had to also follow Jewish custom - the law - to be saved, to be Christian.

And the point of the whole letter is Paul’s warning to them to not fall back into slavery, to sin, to legalism (morality, performance), or idolatry.

And his challenge is on the basis of freedom.

Oh how we have these same voices around us. It was just last Sunday I was exasperated… watching a clip of someone, respectable, making a claim about what pastors everywhere must be preaching about. Or they are not faithful pastors. The problem for me was, I don’t see that type of preaching anywhere in the New Testament!

There is so much more, at every turn, Christians must do this, be this, say this, etc… much of it doesn’t pass the smell test, it doesn’t smell like Jesus!

Most of it adds burden, ends up condemning, oppressing those that can’t live up, and making us captive to performance (being good enough), or hiding (trapped by the potential shame of being known).

For the Galatians its circumcision. For us it is an endless list of todo’s, or tada’s. Most often good things, that we see as buying our own freedom or favor and neglecting, severing ourselves from what we already have in Christ.

Galatians 5:3 “I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.” (ESV)

“against God (2:16; 5:13), God has removed the just curse of his law from us through the death of Christ (3:13) and has begun to transform us into the loving people he created us to be (3:27–29; 6:15). This all happens as a free gift of God and at his initiative, which is why Paul says that to deviate from this truth is to fall away from grace (5:4) and why he addresses the Galatians as those who are “called” to freedom (5:13). Whenever we add other religious elements to this essential truth of the gospel as a way of hedging our bets with God—pilgrimages, religious routines, giving to the church, supporting missionaries, or any number of other good deeds—we are stepping out of Christianity and into a different religion. It is not that any of these things are wrong (that too is heresy!), but if our motivation for doing them is to win God’s favor, then our motivation is wrong, based on a “different gospel” that, as Paul says in 1:6–7, is no gospel.”

Warning away from. Standing firm in freedom is where we are meant to flourish.

When we fall for the idol’s lure, or legalism’s mandates, we miss out on fruit, on growth in Christlikeness, because we are captive to doing it in our own strength or cleverness. And we become transactional with God… this is what I do. “If I honor you in this way, give me something!”

Spurgeon: “Once there was a gardener, and he grew a carrot. It was a huge carrot. He took it to his kind, and he said, “This is the greatest carrot I’ve ever grown, and I want to give it to you because you’re the king I love. You’re a great king, and I want you to have this as a token of my love.” As he walked away, the king said, “I see how much you love me, and let me give you another whole acre next to your garden so you can be a much greater gardener than you are now,” and the gardener went home rejoicing.

There was a nobleman at court who saw what happened. He saw what happened, and he thought, My goodness, if you get an acre for a carrot, what would you get for a horse? So the next day he brought a horse, and he said, “I raise horses, oh Sovereign, and this is the greatest horse I’ve ever raised. I want to give it to you as a token of my esteem and love.”

The king discerned his heart, and he said, “Thank you, I’ll take the horse, and he walked away with it.” The guy looked at him, and the king turned around and said, “Wait a minute. Let me just explain. The gardener gave me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse.”

I want to be the gardener, who for the joy in the king, just my delight in Jesus, gives over my best because he has made me free.

And it is not in those acts that his love is found anyway. Which honestly, is a tremendously freeing truth itself.

Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” (ESV)

In Jesus, Jesus is all that matters. Not moralism, not sin. Not the ritual, not the heritage. Only faith working through love.

“Do you see? “He never loves me because I did good. I did good because he loves me. He never dis-loves me because I did bad. Even the bad thing I did, God is weaving into a pattern for my life out of his love.” Every day you fill your heart with a certainty of who you are in Christ. What that does is it completely removes your fear, and it’s your fear that is what’s driving you into both the highs and into the lows. There is an unbelievable poise. There’s an unbelievable equilibrium.” Timothy J. Keller

And the freedom Jesus set us free for is the ability to choose something different than what was. To follow his way, to trust him.

We are being set free from the power of sin by the power of the Spirit. Free from the grip of idolatry.

Freedom that unlocks a life of joy, of adventure following Jesus, of rejecting the lies of the enemies of our soul and trusting the truth of Christ. Freedom from the noise.

And it changes us.

God’s grace is restoring to us a will that wants what he wants. Living from his love, not for it. Living from his freedom, not to earn it.

Given all that we need for life in the grace of Christ.

The vaults have been opened and all that is there is the righteousness of Christ.

In Christ we are free from the penalty, presence, and power of sin.

Be Free: Believe that Jesus lived a life of obedience for you, died a death in your place, and was raised for your freedom. Truly believe, even you long time saints.

John 8:24 “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” (ESV)

John 8:31b–32 “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, [32] and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (ESV)

John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (ESV)

Live Free: Saturate yourself, your family, your friends in the truth of Christ. That faith working through love would be the result.

That it would be noticeable to a world captive to sin and counterfeit gods, longing to be free. And tell them about the liberator.

[Jesus did what the law could not do—He took away our sin and saved us, and in doing so He set us free from the penalty, presence and power of sin. For freedom to follow His design of life He set us free. “The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit” (Romans 8:3–4, NLT). Now we who have this freedom can live in God’s ways and love others well in the power of the Spirit (Galatians 5:13–26).]

May it be so in us.